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.\"     @(#)intro.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93
.\" $FreeBSD: src/share/man/man3/intro.3,v 1.14 2001/08/07 15:48:38 ru Exp $
.\"
.Dd Aug 17, 2006
.Dt INTRO 3
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm intro
.Nd introduction to the C libraries
.Sh DESCRIPTION
This section provides an overview of the C
library functions, their error returns and other
common definitions and concepts.
Most of these functions are available from the System library,
.Em libSystem .
Other libraries
must be indicated at compile time with the
.Fl l
option of the compiler.
.Pp
The various libraries (followed by the loader flag):
.Bl -tag -width "libSystem (-lSystem)"
.It Xr libSystem Pq Fl l Ns Ar System
Standard C library functions.
When using the C compiler
.Xr cc 1 ,
it is not necessary
to supply the loader flag
.Fl l Ns Ar System
for these functions.
There are several `libraries' or groups of functions included inside of
.Xr libSystem :
the standard
.Tn I/O
routines,
database routines,
bit operators,
string operators,
character tests and character operators,
des encryption routines,
storage allocation, time functions, signal handling and more.
.Pp
For compatibility with other systems, which provide these capabilities in
separate libraries (such as
.Xr libc ) ,
symbolic links are provided for
.Fl l Ns Ar c ,
.Fl l Ns Ar dbm ,
.Fl l Ns Ar dl ,
.Fl l Ns Ar info ,
.Fl l Ns Ar m ,
.Fl l Ns Ar poll ,
.Fl l Ns Ar pthread
and
.Fl l Ns Ar rpcsvc ;
they all point to
.Xr libSystem .
.It Xr libcurses Pq Fl l Ns Ar curses Fl l Ns Ar termcap
Terminal independent screen management routines
for two dimensional non-bitmap display terminals.
(See
.Xr ncurses 3 . )
.It Xr libl Pq Fl l Ns Ar l
The library for
.Xr lex 1 .
.It Xr libtermcap Pq Fl l Ns Ar termcap
The terminal independent operation library package.
(See
.Xr termcap 3 . )
.\" .It libvt0.a
.It Xr liby Pq Fl l Ns Ar y
The library for
.Xr yacc 1 .
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width /usr/lib/libSystem_profile.dylib -compact
.It Pa /usr/lib/libSystem.dylib
the main System library
.It Pa /usr/lib/libSystem_debug.dylib
the main System library compiled with debug support
.It Pa /usr/lib/libSystem_profile.dylib
the main System library compiled for profiling
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.\" .Xr libc 3 ,
.Xr cc 1 ,
.Xr ld 1 ,
.Xr nm 1 ,
.Xr intro 2 ,
.Xr stdio 3
.\" .Sh LIST OF FUNCTIONS
.\" .Bl -column "strncasecmpxxx" "system"
.\" .Sy Name	Description
.\" .El
.Sh HISTORY
An
.Nm
manual appeared in
.At v7 .
